Comatose
by Hakudoushi1
Summary: Willow is injured and in a comatose state. In her mind is a life where Buffy is dead, she and Tara are married,are raising Dawn and expecting a baby. But Willow's real body is withering away. She has a choice: her new false happiness or a daunting reality
1. Prologue

-1

_**I have a problem with typing what I'm thinking in my mind so sometimes I think quicker than I can type so the words come out in a jumbled mess on paper. So I my spelling, grammar and sentencing are a little strange, cut me some slack because I AM trying….truly I am.**_

_**Disclaimers go as Usual…Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all it's characters, concepts and Overall greatness are too ingenious for my feeble mind to create…so All credit (except the occasional original character) Goes to the creator of Buffy….the Amazingly talented Joss Whedon ! And all his Co-creators…. I own nothing…. Hakudoushi**_

**Comatose**

_Prologue_

"Is she…?"

Buffy leaned over Willow's lifeless body, letting her tears roll down her face and drop to her best friend's breast. Willow only had a small bruise on her temple, but it was enough to render her so utterly un-coconscious that she appeared dead. Buffy didn't want to start crying, because despite this moment of grief she was surrounded by a dozen or so young Slayers, all drenched in blood and dust. It was routine Vamp sweep gone horribly wrong. So horrible that Willow, invincible, powerful Willow, was laying in Buffy's arms, so near death that it made the veteran Slayer shudder. She tried to support Willow's limp head, but it just rolled over to reveal the true extent of her Injuries. On the side where Willow's head was resting on the ground, her face and head were shredded and her bone was revealed beneath the ripped skin.

"Buff, we need to get Willow back to headquarters, she need medical treatment now. And you Buffy, your arm."

Xander, with his eye patch torn and dangling from his ear, covered in blood, tugged at Buffy's shoulder, urging her to get up. She winced, there was a deep gash on her arm that was bleeding profusely and her bone was broken beneath. How could she have let this happen? Buffy looked past her tears and scanned her surroundings. It was chaos. Slayers were either dead or injured everywhere, littering the back drop of a cathedral with blood. The Vampires where dead to the very last, but it wasn't right. Vampires in a Church? In a Church with no roof none the less, on a day where the sun shone through the summer sky bright at its zenith. Buffy had thought they had the sun on their side, the roofless building was an advantage. Vamps on Holy ground was almost like stomping flies on sticky paper in a normal situation. But there was something different about the Vampires that attacked the slayers this day. They were ambushed in a fashion that was so intense and so agile that in the first few moments of engagement, so many Slayers were caught off guard and were killed instantly in the initial blow. But Buffy fought on. Causalities were something that she had learned to absorb and take without faze, but when she heard Willow cry out and fall to the ground as if dead, she began to break down. Everything hit her at once. Buffy screamed such a terrible scream that each of the Slayers could swear their hearts stopped. Then came the deep and mournful sobs, followed by dense, gray clouds that seemed to come out of nowhere to accompany Buffy's sorrow. It was indescribable how silent it was, and how shocked the Slayers where to see their fearless leader break down into tears. Rain began to fall, drenching Buffy to where nobody could distinguish the difference between her tears and the rain that dripped off her hair. Willow's wound began to bleed.

"Come on Buffy. She needs help."

Xander wanted to cry too. He reached up and tapped his empty eye socket and wondered if it could still shed tears.

Xander ended up carrying Willow back. Buffy was completely unresponsive and shook violently. Satsu carried her, holding her protectively against her breast. Xander felt helpless with Willow's limp body in his arms. He knew that a wound like the one she had was critical and life treating. He watched as blood pooled onto his shirt. Willow's body gave a shudder and she moaned, but didn't regain consciousness. Xander didn't think that it would be fair for Willow to die in his arms after knowing her for such a long time, after taking her for granted the duration of his child hood and early adult hood. To loose her now would be like loosing a piece of his soul. Xander wanted to cry, to sob with the passion and empathy that Buffy so openly displayed. But he had a duty to do. To lead the reaming slayers and the wounded to a safe point was Xander's main priority, but it was going to kill him to have to feel the constant presence of Willow's blood soaking into his shirt. He fought back the tears to the point where it hurt to hold them in. Willow stirred again, and moaned in pain. Xander gripped her body closer and, in a furry screamed his frustration. Later, at the safe point the would barricade himself in a room, away from prying eyes, and he would cleanse the blood of his best friend off his body and he could cry the hardest he had cried since the day Buffy died in the battle against Glory.


	2. Simple Life

-1

_I have a problem with typing what I'm thinking in my mind so sometimes I think quicker than I can type so the words come out in a jumbled mess on paper. So I my spelling, grammar and sentencing are a little strange, cut me some slack because I AM trying….truly I am._

_Disclaimers go as Usual…Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all it's characters, concepts and Overall greatness are too ingenious for my feeble mind to create…so All credit (except the occasional original character) Goes to the creator of Buffy….the Amazingly talented Joss Whedon ! And all his Co-creators…. I own nothing…. Hakudoushi_

**Chapter 1: Simple Life**

_"Willow?"_

the voice seemed far off, and echoed in Willow's head. then everything came rushing back to her and pounded her mind. Pain shot to her head and she sat up with a scream. She was in her favorite pair of pajamas, the ones Tara had bought her for her birthday a few years back. She sat up in her bed frantically, a deep terror coursing through her veins and quickly took in her surroundings. Everything was unfamiliar for a moment's time. The Four poster bed with deep burgundy curtains pulled back in clumps in the bed frame. The round sky window that let in the slightest hint of morning sunlight that shone past the colored shaped crate paper that made colors in the floor beneath. The walls where white and covered in simple art that made the room beautiful and serene. There were bookshelves covered in a collection of vintage volumes, and adored with antique artifacts that let of a musky smell of age and ancient beauty. Willow finished scanning the room as everything became familiar once again and the veil of sleep wore off. Willow rubbed her eyes as the person sitting next to her came into focus. Willow felt like she had been socked in the stomach when she realized who was looking back at her. Bursts of fragmented memories that seemed like far off dreams surged through Willow's head. Memories of death and murder, Betrayal and retribution. It was maddening that Willow couldn't get her mind to rest for a moment and comprehend what she was looking at and what all these thoughts meant. They had never happened, Willow thought to her self.

"Honey, you look pale. Are you sick. Will, baby are you ok?"

Tara wasn't dead like Willow's head was telling her. Beautiful and gentle Tara was sitting right before her in her own pajamas with a look of worry and agony on her precious face. Willow shook her head. Tara had never been killed and Willow was sitting beneath the covers of the bed she shared with her dear lover and life partner. The false memories were quickly overcome with the truth as Willow remember the years she had spent living and loving Tara.

"Is everything ok? I heard screaming?"

Willow looked to the door of her room, which was slightly ajar. A curious face was looking in.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. Willow had a nightmare I'm guessing."

Tara reached up and stroked Willow's cheek gently. Her touch, so warm and sincere was what brought Willow back to reality and away from her mind.

"Dawnie, I'm sorry I scared you!"

Willow said, sounding groggy. She patted the comforter on the bed and invited her to sit down. In her silk nighty and red slippers, Dawn scooted along the wooden floors to the grand bed where the three girls laughed and talked happily as though it were the normal morning routine.

Willow still felt lost. Though she could play the part almost perfectly, it seemed the memories of day to day life routine where written as she lived them. Dawn was to be at the bus stop at promptly 8am and Willow had to drive her there. She remembered that they lived in a rural home in Massachusetts. The small, and rather old house was occupied by Dawn who was turning 18 in the coming months, Willow who worked as a librarian at the local museum and Tara, whom Willow called 'waitress extraordinaire'. there were also three cats running around the farmstead, a dog or too who kept guard over the acres of land, chickens that had nested somewhere near the house long before Willow had ever moved in, and an old horse named Zen who also outdated the Rosenberg party by decades from the look of him. Xander was also a wholesome addition to the farm scenery. For a small price (which was food other than Anya's cooking), Xander fed the animals, and managed the land. Upon moving into the farm, the group had discovered a small house on the edge of the property that was once used for slaves in the 1800s. It was a shack that looked on the brink of hell, but with a little of Xander's expertise in construction and Anya's constant nagging, they managed to turn it into a little cottage where the Harris family could live. Willow churned over the memories in her head. It all seemed too perfect. She sighed as she sat at the breakfast table, her face tired and twisted with fatigue. It all seemed too perfect, but then she remembered the flaw in this 'simple' life. Her eyes darted to the kitchen wall which was treated like a shrine for memories. Photographs lined the walls, all of happy smiling faces and better times. There were pictures of Dawn first day at school and Willow and Xander by the stream as kids. There were Willow and Tara's wedding pictures, pictures of Xander and Anya greeting their new child into the world. There were pictures of the Scooby Gang at the grand opening of the Magic Shop and the graduation day photo which made Willow laugh each time. But the pictures that stood out the most where the ones with Buffy with a smile on her face and a spark in her eye. She was so beautiful, and it almost scared Willow how hard it was to choke back tears when glancing at the pictures. There were childhood photos of a cute Buffy with little blonde pigtails holding infant Dawn as a proud older sister, and her with scrapes on her knees as a rowdy school kid. There was a rare picture of her and Riley, an old boyfriend who had disappeared . There was one with her and Giles simply talking, and another with Joyce and Buffy in a silver frame that read "In Loving Memory"

"Will? You look distant"

Willow jumped, letting her cup of hot tea slop over the edge of her mug into her lap. She shrieked and spat out a spell that instantly removed the coffee stain and burning sensation from her legs. Xander was pushing through the kitchen door, carrying a box and a baby in his arms. Willow stood up, trying to look dignified.

"Xander, so nice of you to knock"

Willow said.

"I did. You were a million miles away"

Xander smiled and tried to shut the door with his full arms. It was hilarious watching Xander struggle and in the end he dropped the box which spilled apples all over the kitchen floor which amused the child in his arms. The little pigtailed blonde squealed with laughter and clapped her hands with delight as her father made a fool of himself yet again. Xander blushed and set the child down on the floor.

"Lexi, you're suppose to be on my side!"

Xander tasseled her hair.

"Sorry Will, you know how it is"

Xander leaned forehead and kissed Willow on the forehead. A simple, friendly peck from good old Xander, the man that brought spice to the lives of everyone who knew him. Lexi was like a female clone of Xander, personality wise, but had Anya's easy beauty and naive sense of wisdom that made her so tolerantly adorable.

"And where are Tara and Dawnie this morning?"

Willow was brought back from admiring her friend and looked around the empty kitchen.

"Tara had to work the morning shift and Dawnie is probably procrastinating…."

Willow stopped suddenly as Xander responded with a laugh. He was standing right in front of her, with his big goof smile and his eyes lit up, but for some reason Willow couldn't explain, he looked distant. It was as if she were seeing Xander through the eyes of another person. His voice seemed to echo and fade from her ears until all she heard were the faint remnants of a distant laugh.


End file.
